Supermoon

Tonight the moon is exceptionally clear and beautiful. For those of you that may have noticed that the moon looks brighter and clearer today than normally, there is a reason to this. Actually this is the closest the moon has been to Earth in 19 years. This phenomenon is called a supermoon or a lunar perigee.

In astronomy, a supermoon is a full or new moon that coincides with a close approach by the Moon to the Earth. The Moon’s distance varies each month between approximately 354,000 km (220,000 mi) and 410,000 km (254,000 mi) due to its elliptical orbit around Earth.